MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

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KateR
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by KateR »

NiLa wrote: And-as Kate likes them so much- I found a little flaw again:
When MacGyver is staked out in the sun he wears a brown belt. In the scene, when he already has cut himself lose and the Swiss Army Knife lies in the sand to distract the second guard, he still wears it while laying on the rack. The guard bends down to get the knife and MacGyver knocks him out. Exactly in that moment the brown belt disappears and MacGyver goes over to the first guard whom he has knocked out earlier and fastened to a tree with his belt. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Yes, I DO love looking for these! :) It certainly deserves chocolate! (If you haven't already overdosed on 12 different MacGyverisms in that episode.)

You know, many years ago I had sent a fan letter (my very first, and yes, an actual letter, before email existed) to the studio simply saying how much I had enjoyed the show as a model for young people, and I acknowledged their careful attention to details but also pointed out one or two of these "missing" details I had noticed. Bless his heart, I got a personal response back from Henry Winkler saying "We loved receiving your letter" and going on to talk about how tricky it can be putting together such a detailed show each week.

When I finally had the opportunity to visit the set to see all that goes into putting these episodes together, I could truly understand just how easy it is for these little things to slip through. It's not only up to the on-set continuity person to keep track of all these, but also the editor must be paying attention to them, too, so that the shots that he selects match correctly. This one almost certainly was an editing error, not a filming oversight, since by the time they filmed the scene where he gets up off the rack, they had remembered to remove his belt. :)

If you all are going to help me spot them, maybe I should start adding them to the Lexicon in the category: "Oops." ;) :lol:

Kate
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Juliette
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by Juliette »

I love spotting these too!

Maybe we should start a thread dedicated to this..
When we watch an episode and spot one of these "mistakes" we write it there.
This way, everyone can contribute to the Lexicon. We are never too many because not everyone pays attention to the same things.

It's just a suggestion but it could be interesting to gather all of them in the same place so that Kate can easily collect them to fill the Lexicon.
What do you think?
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NiLa
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by NiLa »

Juliette, the idea of an extra topic for the litle flaws is very good.

Maybe we should name it "oops"...like Kate suggested.... :lol:

Anja ;)
Walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.
MacGyver
....by doing so our world will be better each day...
Anja ;)
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Well, it's Friday again = which means it's time to start discussing the next MacGyver episode: "Thief of Budapest."

Hope someone will step up and start the discussion....I'll chime in later. :D :D :D
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Okay, so no one is ready to post their comments on the episode, "Thief of Budapest" ???

I'll just say that once again MacGyver has an interesting and eventually very good relationship with a young person. He is always so good with all children. And all children love him back. Think this is true in real life as well as in his acting roles.

And the "kiss test" in this episode is remarkable to me, one because the woman appears to be quite a bit older than Mac (which doesn't seem to matter to the writers) and two, it once again establishes the fact that Mac is a good kisser.,.,., :oops: :oops: :oops:

Now, please go ahead and write what you think about this episode,......more later from me will probably happen.... :D :D :D
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Any other comments on Thief of Budapest?

I'll add a few.

The opening gambit of Mac stealing back the horse from the tribal leader is one of the more remarkable ones in the whole series with the horse - and Mac - being swooped up into the air by the helicopter. RDA commented on this stunt at least once, maybe more, in one (or more) of his conventions, saying that he was allowed to ride the horse up about 30 feet but then they substituted a stunt double for him. He also said the horse was enjoying the ride = was not hurt. Good to know. Finally, the mustache on the tribal leader was quite remarkable... :D :D :D

The main episode takes place, of course, in Budapest, Hungary, during the Cold War. A double agent (for the West who has evidently been in some part of the communist block and who has retrieved a list of Soviet KGB agents who are working in London I believe) named Nikolai Grotsky has a watch with the list in it but he is killed before Mac can get the watch from him.

In the meantime, Yana, a young gypsy, pickpockets MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife but Mac gets it back until Yana steals it again. But more importantly, Yana steals the watch from Nikolai before he is killed....leading to Mac chasing Yana to get the watch back, only to find out she gave it to her brother Bruno. The police go after Yana too but pick up the rest of her family. Yana is in tears in Mac's arms. (By the way, Mac sure looks good in his white shirt.... :oops: :oops: :oops: ).

Yana's family is taken to a prison camp which is for political prisoners. Mac has to MacGyver a way out of the prison camp for Yana's brother and the rest of her brothers. Mac succeeds using several MacGyverisms involving a supply truck, a mop, a bucket, some boards, some lightbulbs, some salt, sugar, and weed killer to make a bomb that will explode and act as a diversion. (Amazing the way Mac can find ways to make a bomb out of these items.....)

The police (one a Hungarian and one a Russian) of course are still after Mac and Yana to get the watch which Bruno. Yana to Mac: Why do they hate us Gypsies so? Mac: Some people are scared of anybody who runs free. It turns out, Yana's brother has sold the important watch to someone named Rena....so Mac goes looking for Rena.

He goes into a bar where there are several unseemly and mean looking characters (who Mac describes this way: "I see the beautiful people just stopped in to have a quick cocktail before the ballet." :lol: :lol: :lol: who go after Mac....but he avoids them all and then Rena appears and asks him to come upstairs to meet with her. Mac says "Excuse me." to the bad guys = I laughed at that.

Rena offers Mac a drink bu t he says (and maybe this is the first time we learn this about him), "I really don't drink too much." Mac is then put to the "kiss test" = and passes it = meaning Rena says he is telling the truth about why he needs the watch back by the way that he kisses her. Mac says - Is that your lie detector? Rena says, "It's Gypsy magic". Rena, like Yana and the others, is also a Gypsy but she has disdain for the likes of Yana and her family. Mac uses the wine on a bobby pin to enlarge and show Rena the names of the KGB agents on the watch face. Rena asks Mac = what are you offering for the watch. Mac says he doesn't have much cash, does she take plastic :lol: :lol: . Rena: I don't deal with credit. So, she gives Mac the watch and he escapes, sliding down the roof. (That looked like RDA doing that stunt of sliding down the roof which was a steep slide and drop).

Yana and her brother pick up Mac after he slides down the roof. Yana tells Mac she and her family want to go to America = saying some things she knows about the US of A like Clint Eastwood, Coca Cola and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Mac of course is reluctant at first but then agrees to help them get out of Budapest and to go to America. Then starts the amazing car chase that uses (info from Kate's lexicon here on the website) stock footage from a 1969 movie. Mac gets Yana to duct tape her radio to the police radio that Yana has stolen and then attaches that contraption to some hot air balloons which lift it up high enough to cause the music from the radio to override that police as they are trying to communicate to their men...which works of course.

The car chase ends with the 3 cars breaking through the barricade that separates the old communist enclave from the free West. Mac gives his Swiss Army knife to Yana and she gives him her necklace with the medal of the patron saint of gypsies on it....and, of course, they hug. Mac once again has this fantastic relationship with a young person in one of his episodes....something that will carry through the entire series.

All in all an informative episode about the old Cold War conditions and about Gypsies and about the desire for freedom as Mac triumphs for the good.
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NiLa
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by NiLa »

Thanks, B, for your great summary.

I also like the geat opening gambit with the horse. But that's all I like about this episode.

The first part of the story is quite interesting (double agent, the chase for the watch, breaking out of the prison with all the Macgyverisms), altough I have every time when I watch the episode the feeling that the writers of this episode jumped from one cliche´to the next.
The gypsies, the situation in the bar, the kissing scene with Rena....it makes me squirm. :roll:
In the end so long minutes for that car chasing....cars race through Budapest.....down the stairs....through a tunnel....sorry, I don't like it a bit. For me it's just boring.

So, as much as I like MacGyver, this is an episode I could live without gladly.

Anja ;)
Walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.
MacGyver
....by doing so our world will be better each day...
Anja ;)
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by bftlovesRDA »

NiLa wrote: Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:46 am Thanks, B, for your great summary.

I also like the geat opening gambit with the horse. But that's all I like about this episode.

The first part of the story is quite interesting (double agent, the chase for the watch, breaking out of the prison with all the Macgyverisms), altough I have every time when I watch the episode the feeling that the writers of this episode jumped from one cliche´to the next.
The gypsies, the situation in the bar, the kissing scene with Rena....it makes me squirm. :roll:
In the end so long minutes for that car chasing....cars race through Budapest.....down the stairs....through a tunnel....sorry, I don't like it a bit. For me it's just boring.

So, as much as I like MacGyver, this is an episode I could live without gladly.

Anja ;)
Appreciate your comments, Anja. This is actually not my favorite MacGyver episode either. I liked Mac's interaction with Yana since I like his dealings with young people throughout the series. And I actually liked the kiss test since I like all of Mac's kissing scenes..... :oops: :oops: :oops: The writers evidently like those scenes too since they put kissing scenes in so many of his episodes. I liked the scene in the bar with the bad guys and Mac because he ends if with humor = "excuse me". But I agree with you that the car chase gets tiring. :roll: :roll: :roll:

All in all, not a great episode but, to me, a tolerable one.
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KateR
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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by KateR »

NiLa wrote: I also like the geat opening gambit with the horse. But that's all I like about this episode.
I really enjoyed the Pegasus gambit too - one of their more ambitious gambits, and it was fun to learn that RDA did much of that scene himself. Still, the whole premise was a little odd - sending in a government agent to steal a horse? I find myself wondering how that idea came about in the writers' room. "I've got a great idea to lift up a galloping horse with a helicopter - got any ideas how we can come up with an excuse to do that??" ;) What strikes me about some of these earlier missions, too, was that Mac seemed to have backup waiting for him. Clearly that helicopter airlift was a planned part of the mission. I guess it came later that he was left mostly to his own devices to carry out his assignments.
The first part of the story is quite interesting (double agent, the chase for the watch, breaking out of the prison with all the Macgyverisms), altough I have every time when I watch the episode the feeling that the writers of this episode jumped from one cliche´to the next.
The gypsies, the situation in the bar, the kissing scene with Rena....it makes me squirm. :roll:
I actually liked this episode a lot, but then I thought many of the early (and even some later) episodes were filled with cliches and cringe-worthy dialogue. But to me it was MacGyver's cleverness and RDA's charm that carried the show, and so I was able to overlook all of that. (I mentioned elsewhere that I just finished doing Target MacGyver, and I cringe through every word of dialogue in that episode, but I love Harry.)

RDA is so good with kids that he made the scenes with Jana so sweet. I didn't much identify with the idea that gypsies are misunderstood and only want to run free since I had once been pick-pocketed myself by gypsies in Paris. Spending part of my vacation in the US Embassy trying to get a new passport did not do much to soften my view of thieves, so I had to overlook that as well.

I enjoyed the way MacGyver in early episodes seemed so calm in every situation, despite his real feelings, with some of that dry humor that we would come to expect from Jack. My favorite line is "Am I too late for Happy Hour?" which was another line that used to be cut out when the show ran on the USA channel. We get one of our first real glimpses of an exasperated Mac when he finally breaks out Jana's family and then learns they sold the watch and want to defect. I'm not sure how he assumed that he could just waltz into the US with a family of gypsies without urgent circumstances like political asylum, but again, I overlooked those details and just enjoyed RDA's charm.

I didn't mind the scene in the bar, and I actually enjoyed Reena just because she seemed to throw him off balance a bit. And I did like the MacGyverisms throughout the episode. (I wonder how many kids tried to blow up paprika after that?)
In the end so long minutes for that car chasing....cars race through Budapest.....down the stairs....through a tunnel....sorry, I don't like it a bit. For me it's just boring.
I guess they needed to fill in time. In several of these early episodes they used footage from the movie library that Paramount owned. It will happen again in Trumbo's World. What bothered me about those scenes was that they spent all this time driving through Budapest, managed to get out of the city, and then almost immediately drove across the border to Austria. I've studied maps, and I can't figure out how Budapest got that close to the Austrian border. ;) So perhaps we are fortunate that they did not show us the WHOLE drive across Hungary. :lol:
So, as much as I like MacGyver, this is an episode I could live without gladly.
Aww... And I still enjoy rewatching it. Maybe it just takes me back to a time when MacGyver was still new and I so looked forward to each new episode. :)

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Re: MacGyver/Discuss episode of the week

Post by JackGywer »

Thief of Budapest

Okay, the opening was spectacular and I would have liked to see more of this adventure!
Exactly my taste :lol:


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I also liked the main story! As I said and keep saying, I am a fan of the early episodes.
Even if the story here and there is a bit bumpy, uses clichés, it does not bother me.


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What you absolutely notice is RDA has just a connection to kids.
You can see it in this episode and in many later ones too. Just nice to see how the two complement each other.

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As a fan of all the MacGyverisms I came here also fully at my expense.
Explosive chili :lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpEMMw-C7mA


Of course, what can not be missing? A kiss! 8-)
What burned into my memory was not the kiss, but this picture :lol: :lol:
(In some way, this picture always bothers me, I do not know why, but it is.)

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When Mac caused the traffic chaos, I laughed a lot, I enjoyed it!
Always wonder who on earth's will come up with such ideas. Thanks for that!!

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All in all, not my favorite episode, but it was entertaining and that's what it's all about, is not it?
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I continue to follow my heart,
that does not have to know the mind.


J.K.
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